I met a woman at a party not too long ago and we bonded over our mutual love of cooking. Talk turned to our favorite Thanksgiving side dishes, and she said that one of hers was the Beet Puree in the original Silver Palate Cookbook. Since I too have cooked my way through that book, I remembered the recipe and for days after our conversation, I had a craving for those beets. When I went shopping for the ingredients, I saw some lovely golden beets that I thought I would like to try instead—and so here is my adaptation, with a tip of the hat to Leslie and the Silver Palate.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Trim the tops of the beets and peel off the skin with a vegetable peeler. Oil the beets with the oil, sprinkle them with a bit of kosher salt wrap them in foil and place them in the oven to bake for one hour. Remove from the oven and check that the beets are cooked through and tender (if a fork easily slides through, they are done). Let them cool until you can handle them and then chop the beets coarsely and set them aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and cook; stirring frequently, over they are soft and translucent, but not browned. Add the apples, sugar, salt and balsamic vinegar to the onions, and simmer the mixture until the apples are very tender.

Spoon the apple and onion mixture into a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the beets. Pulse the mixture until smooth. Return the puree to the saucepan, taste and correct the seasoning. Reheat just before serving.

This now-classic pasta dish is not originally Italian, but was reputedly invented at Le Cirque restaurant in New York in the early 70s by a restaurateur named Sirio Maccioni. …Continue reading: Pasta Primavera